Our reinforcers are or become our values. The stimuli in various contingencies evoke our claims that we have rights regarding unrestricted access to these values, these reinforcers. Next, ethics involve the respecting of our rights claims for unobstructed access to our valued reinforcers.
Several commentators (such as Lee McIntyre in his MIT–published 2006 book, Dark Ages—The Case for a Science of Human Behavior) have put forth calls for the development of a natural science of human behavior (like behaviorology). The difference between natural science and social science is relevant to understanding the place of those calls.
What is death and how can the terminally ill receive better, more scientifically informed care that helps them retain their dignity during the dying process? Understanding death and enhancing dignified dying provide good starting points.
That abstract status of morals, as verbal stimuli, somewhat divorces them from the contingencies that generate them. This can lead to problems just as rules that no longer reflect the contingencies that they describe—because the contingencies have changed—can lead to problems.
While the term values refers to reinforcers, and the term rights refers to access to values (i.e., to claims of access to reinforcers) the term ethics refers to respecting those rights claims for clear access to valued reinforcers. We define ethical behavior as behavior respectful of rights claims. Those who respect our rights claims earn the label, “ethical” or, rather, their behavior of respecting our rights claims earns the label, “ethical behavior,” and we appreciate the ethics we say they “show” by respecting our rights claims.
